Flammable goods

Fire protection in laboratory environments

In addition to the risk of personal injury, fires often result in high costs and long clean-up times. Then factors such as unusable premises, destroyed equipment, and loss of research data must be taken into account. It is therefore important that everyone working in a laboratory environment is aware of the risks and knows how to act if an accident occurs.

Training and information

Employees and students must have the skills to handle the substances that occur in the relevant lab environment. You should be aware of the risks by knowing how to obtain information about the risks of a particular substance.

Employees/students who work in laboratories must:

• be aware of the risk assessment carried out for the laboratory work in question
• know when a liquid or gas is flammable. You should know the meaning of flash point.
• be able to find safety data sheets in Klara and use adequate information from these in a correct manner
• be able to handle safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers

Refresher training to achieve the required competence must be carried out regularly.

On the first visit to a lab, employees and students should receive information about the workplace's fire safety. After this information, you should have knowledge of the activity's procedures in the event of an alarm/fire and in the event of spills/emissions and be able to/know where:

• alert 112 in the quickest way
• fire fighting equipment is located in the premises
• the main shut-off valve LPG is located, if relevant
• emergency shower and eye wash are located
• where the emergency escape routes are and where the assembly point is
• absorbent for cleaning up chemical spills is located

Read about "Storage, labelling and marking of flammable goods" on the page about Storage of chemical substances.